Trans Actor Jake Graf Talks Playing a Cisgender Character in Colette

Keira Knightley stars as Colette and Jake Graf and Janine Harouni as Gaston and Jeanne De Caillavet in Colette, a Bleecker Street release.Robert Viglasky/Bleecker Street

The biopic film Colette, opening today, tells the story of acclaimed bisexual author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette’s Sisyphean fight to write freely under her own name in early 20th century Paris. Satisfyingly witty and resonant, the feminist literary tale stars Keira Knightley as the eponymous writer. Knightley also serves as the high-profile Trojan Horse for a film rife with uncontested queer talent, including director Wash Westmoreland, producer Christine Vachon, actresses Rebecca Root and Fiona Shaw, and actor Jake Graf.

Graf, a London-born actor who has made a name for himself as both a trans activist and an innovative short film director, plays the French salon heir and playwright Gaston De Caillavet. We recently spoke to Graf about the joys of queer period roles, the nuances of telling trans stories inside and outside the studio system, and the films he wants to see made next.

How did you come to be cast in Colette?

It was a bit of a whirlwind. I was actually approached by casting agents nearly two years ago who mentioned the film to me and asked if I’d like to be involved. Wash Westmoreland got in touch through Facebook and said, ‘I’d love to have you on board.’ I wasn’t even that familiar with Wash, to be honest. But when I went to meet him for the audition, he was such a down-to-earth, sweet kind of guy. Not at all the Hollywood Oscar-nominated director type. So I auditioned for him and he said, ‘We absolutely love you and we’d like to have you on board,’ and since then, we’ve become friends. I am incredibly lucky that he was aware of me from my work as a trans actor, director, and writer, and that he believed in me enough to give me a part in the film.

You play Gaston, a playwright and confidante of Colette’s. In interviews, cis actors are often asked the titillating question what it’s like to play trans. Shall we flip that on its head? What was it like to play cis?

In a weird way, I’ve played cis most of my life under the guise of a woman! Obviously I’ve been acting cis all my life. In Colette, I was playing a man: the most natural thing in the world to me. It was a joy and an honor. It was also kind of nice to not be playing a trans role.

You attended TIFF earlier this month. What was like seeing Colette with such a large audience?

I hadn’t actually seen the film before Toronto! Wash actually got me up on stage with Dominic West, Keira Knightley, Ray Panthaki, and Denise Gough. We did a Q&A there and the audience was hugely responsive and positive. The whole thing was a dream and the film was absolutely stunning. During shooting, Wash let me shadow him as a director, because I direct as well. I was able to watch a lot of the shoot; to see all those scenes coming together on the screen and to watch the whole film felt magical. I studied Colette when I was in school, and to see her story being so authentically portrayed was a dream come true.

You were also in Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl. Your own films are more contemporary, but do you enjoy period roles?

Absolutely! There’s such a search today for queer period pieces. If said to someone 10 years ago that there would be Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated trans-themed period pieces, I think they would’ve laughed you out of the studio. But clearly there is a hunger for these stories to be told. It’s really important that people be aware that, as LGBTQ+ people, we’ve been around since the dawn of time. To know that The Danish Girl and Colette are both real stories and that these queer people were alive, well, kicking, out there, vocal, taking chances, taking risks, carving trails, and blazing paths for people like us nowadays — that’s amazing. To be a part of that is a massive honor. One day, I will work myself up to a budget of £10 or £15 million, and fingers crossed, be telling these stories as well. They make people realize that queer people have been around forever. It’s not a trend, a fad, or anything else. We have been here and we are here today.

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Over the past few months, the importance of casting and supporting trans creatives has met a tipping point in Hollywood. The Danish Girl, among other titles with which I’m sure you’re familiar, is pointed to as part of the problem for casting a cis lead as its trans character — often to much acclaim. Do you envision a solution to this quandary?

As a director and a writer with a very small budget, I’ve been able to cast my trans friends and contacts in those roles because there’s not a huge budget hanging over me or a studio putting down demands and telling me what I need to do. It’s worth remembering that a lot of actors that are working for these parts like Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl and Denise Gough in Colette: These are people who are great actors and have been working at their craft for years, and just want to act. Obviously it’s really important that trans people start being seen for those parts as well and that we start getting chances to get our foot in the door so we can reach for those parts. But it’s also worth remembering that these actors have worked very hard to have the profile they do, and without profile, you can’t have a big budget or reach.

I know that the reach of The Danish Girl — whether or not you agree with Eddie Redmayne’s casting or think that he did a great job — had a role in helping people understand what it means to be trans and helped trans exposure. With an actor with less visibility, the film wouldn’t have been made or had the positive effect it did for a lot of people. It is a double-edged sword and I’m lucky to be in a position to cast whomever I want. Yet I’m well-aware that when I start working with a bigger budget, there will be a lot more pressure on me to cast those bigger names.

What we really need to do is get to the point where trans actors like myself, Laverne Cox, Trace Lisette, Alexandra Billings, and Brian Michael are in positions where they are the obvious choices for these roles and it’s no question that those actors will get them. In the meantime, maybe it’s a question of giving trans actors the supporting roles that I and Rebecca Root (an out trans actress) were given in Colette until we become the obvious, irrefutable choices for those parts.

You’ve made a number of short films about identity, including Brace, which is an emotionally intense portrait of a relationship between two trans men. What does it feel like to write and star in your own work?

When I was growing up, I had no visible role models whatsoever. I didn’t have any point of reference to know that there were people like me out there. I didn’t actually see another trans man on-screen or represented in the media until I saw Boys Don’t Cry when I was 15. That was one of the most horrific insights into what it was like to be a trans man; it put me off transition for a good decade!

When I decided I was going to transition, I wrote, produced, and starred in my own film, which was called XY. It was the first project I did, yet it resonated as a story of a lesbian couple where one transitions and the other says, ‘I prefer women.’ The guy goes off and carves his own path. I shot it over two years and allowed my own physical transition to depict the physical changes that the character was experiencing in the film. That really resonated with people and did well on the festival circuit. I was then able to make Brace and several other films since then that have been well-received because there’s such a dearth of that kind of filmmaking. I get messaged pretty much daily by young trans guys who watched my films and feel less alone because of them. It’s an honor to be able to do that and I sincerely hope that I can carry on making films. Eventually, I’ll be able to make a box office film. And I would never, ever cast anyone but a trans actor.

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What’s next for you? Do you have any projects in the works?

I’ve made six or seven short films. There’s another coming out in a few weeks called Cyber Bully. I’ve just shot a short film with trans kids in it which will hopefully have a big online release and help trans kids realize they’re not alone. I’ve been told by people on all sides that I need to work on a feature film, so for the last six months I’ve been working on that. I’m very lucky because the producer for that project is a trans woman, Andee Ryder, who just produced the new Alexander McQueen documentary, McQueen. So I’ve been working closely with her company, Misfits Entertainment. We are now in the third draft of the screenplay; it’s the story of a gay pregnant trans man and his journey to find acceptance and be able to be happy as who he is. We have a very exciting challenge ahead.

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